Student health proposal needs more ambition

Posted: Wednesday, February 27, 2008

State Sen. Joseph Carter, R-Tifton, clearly is committed to the entirely worthy cause of getting the young people of this state physically fit and keeping them that way. It's a worthy cause because, as a set of troubling data show, it's a necessary cause.

Consider, for instance, the 2003 study by the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia that revealed 37 percent of the state's children are obese. Consider, too, a 2006 assessment of more than 5,000 of this state's young people, conducted by the Philanthropic Collaborative for a Healthy Georgia, which found, in part, that more than half of those young people turned in a sub-par performance in running a series of sprints.

In the 2006 session of the Georgia General Assembly, Carter introduced a bill - the Student Health and Fitness Act - that would have revamped the approach taken in the state's public schools to physical education. In part, Carter's 2006 bill mandated that elementary school students be given 150 minutes of physical education instruction each week, and that middle school students get 225 minutes of physical education instruction weekly. The bill passed the Senate by a healthy margin, but went nowhere in the state House of Representatives.

Notwithstanding the gentleman from Tifton's obvious interest in, and commitment to, the health of this state's young people, a bill he introduced in the current state legislative session isn't even the merest shadow of his effort of two years ago. Carter's latest legislative initiative, Senate Bill 506 - the Student Health and Physical Education Act - does, however, show his understanding of the legislative maxim that failing to pass a bill calling for sweeping change isn't necessarily a call to abandon that effort, but can be a call to draft a less ambitious bill.

The problem with the proposed Student Health and Physical Education Act is that it calls for too little to be done. About all that Carter's bill would do is require schools to measure students' body mass index, a calculation that uses an individual's weight and height to determine whether he or she is obese, overweight, normal or underweight.

The bill would require that schools meet the minimum requirements for physical education that are already set out in state law, and it would require that the state Department of Education have someone on staff to implement the twice-per-school-year body mass index measurement. That staff person would also provide school systems with information on the best practices in student health and physical education.

In addition, the bill mandates that aggregate body mass index data for all school systems be collected by the state and made available to the public on the education department's Web site. School systems that either don't provide the data, or don't adhere to state requirements for physical education, would be labeled "unhealthy school zones" by the board. There would, however, be no other negative consequences for school systems that didn't comply with provisions of the proposed Student Health and Physical Education Act.

Carter's bill might get some communities around the state focused a bit more on the important issues of childhood obesity and physical health, and that's a good thing. But the fact that he introduced this bill, rather than something more sweeping, shows that the legislature as a whole can be expected to place a relatively low priority on the health and well-being of this state's young people.